For Immediate Release
Contact: media@ggjalliance.org
Following passage of dirty debt ceiling legislation in the House, an alliance of 60 U.S.-based frontline organizations demands Senate pass a clean debt ceiling bill.
WASHINGTON D.C. — Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, an organization representing more than 60 frontline, grassroots organizations, released the following in response to the passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act in the House of Representatives:
“Joe Biden’s dirty debt ceiling deal with Republicans sells out the health, safety, and well-being of Black and Indigenous people, communities of color, and the working class. Unconscionable provisions like greenlighting Manchin’s Mountain Valley Pipeline and attacking hungry families irreversibly harms frontline communities, entrenching us into an extractive economy that sacrifices people and kills the planet,” Cindy Wiesner, Executive Director of Grassroots Global Justice Alliance said. “Congress and the administration cannot allow the most vulnerable among us — including people on food stamps, students, and youth — to be bartered by racist extremists and climate-denying profiteers for a problem we did not create. We need the Senate to pass a clean debt ceiling bill to protect communities now and for generations to come.”
“Again, the Biden administration and the dirty deal politicians betray the environmental justice community. So far, it’s the best political system that corporate money can buy. Passing this dirty deal by hiding it in the debt ceiling negotiations only adds insult to injury,” Jose Bravo, Executive Director of Just Transition Alliance and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance Board Member said.
“This new dirty deal weakens our baseline safety net needed to protect working-class families, students, and the environment. All while leaving out the true sources of US national debt– our inflated military defense budget, billionaire tax breaks, and other political and corporate interests that seek to profit off the climate crisis. The Biden Administration continues to show its true colors by pushing a neoliberal agenda that seeks to advance a false solutions framework by cutting deals with harmful industries, all while undermining the voices of grassroots frontline movements demanding a true Just Transition. We need REAL solutions from frontline, Indigenous, and youth stakeholders who are to inherit this history of willful negligence,” Alejandria Lyons, Coalition Coordinator, New Mexico No False Solutions Coalition said.
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Grassroots Global Justice (GGJ) is an alliance of more than 60 U.S.-based grassroots organizing groups composed and led by poor and working-class multiracial, Latinx, Black, Indigenous, Asian Pacific Islander, Arab, and white communities. GGJ is a founding member of It Takes Roots, our core strategic grassroots sector alliance with three sister alliances — Climate Justice Alliance, Indigenous Environmental Network, and Right to the City Alliance. GGJ is also a member of The Rising Majority, a broad front of multiracial, anti-racist organizations that are specifically being led by Black leadership across the country. We are also members of La Jornada Continental for Democracy and Against Neoliberalism, a collaboration focused on rebuilding a strong articulation of popular movements across the Americas.